TEST: Hubsan H501A, the H501S WiFi based but smarter

[Drone News]

INTRODUCTION

After the popular Hubsan H501S, a great long range FPV cruizer integrating a 1080p camera, Hubsan just released a new version/revision “apps” oriented, i.e. H501A, so-called X4 Air Pro. Here bye bye the 5.8G analog FPV link and hello to a pure WiFi 2.4G solution. Via a sophisticated app, you can not only control the machine and retrieve the FPV link signal but also design a mission via the waypoints/POI editor. Other advanced features such as the RTH & Follow me are still here. Let’s dicover first elements. This thread will be construct on the fly.

BOX CONTENT

The X4 Air Pro box shows immediatly the App orientaiton of the new revision.

+ 1 x Hubsan H501A (with a 2S 2700mAh LiPo with EC2 connector)
+ 1 Relay/range extender
+ 1 x Charger
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 1 x Prop remover wrench
+ 1 x USB-microUSB cable
+ 1 x Instruction manual (English)

OVERVIEW

It’s clear, no obvious difference with the H501S & C. Stil a large 250mm full plastic based with a GPS module installed on top of the upper bulb part. Same type of flexible plastic able to resist to moderate crashes thanks to its elasticity.

-FRONT VIEW

The main visible difference is the addition of a NDfilter taped on the former 1080p camera lens

This little addon should improve a little bit the stabilization of the video. Don’t expect any miracle in wind conditions

Here is a raw sample video in calm Wind conditions

The 1080p video is correct, but not yet stabilized. For this H501A we can regret the absence of a builtin EIS solution… already implemented for some Selfiedrones (Zerotech dobby, Wingsland S6, Yuneeck, etc…)

-SIDE VIEW

-REAR VIEW

The microUSB port is still on the left side of the battery tray.

Now the 2.4G WiFi module can be guessed on the bottom side of bay

The provided battery fills completly the bay….

No real other aftermarket alternative boosting flight time.

-UPPER VIEW

-BOTTOM VIEW

The microSD card slot. Still no microSD card provided in the bundle. Please be sure to insert a class10 minimum

Same motor pod

-WEIGHT

A total of 465.7g

Motors & Props

Same golden motors too

5mm of shaft section

The same 7.3″ model optimized for flight duration versus agility

LiPo

The same super large 2S 2700mAh LiPo ending with the unpopular EC2 connector. No improvement for the discharge rate, still a poor 10C but since the H501A is not a racer, it’s largely enough. No real risk of major battery failure.

Range extender

The 2.4G range extender in theory should offer a solid 400m for both the control and FPV link.

You can only install a 5.5″ device on it … so not suitable for large screen tablets. A simple microUSB to recharge the builtin battery and tiny power switch. A red light indicates the power status and 5 blue lights the current level of charge

When you turn on the module, a new WiFi device will appear in your WiFi scan list. The default password is “12345678”. When connected, the module will automatically connect to the aircraft and play the role of a relay/bridge between the drone and your smartphone/Tablet.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS AND DEMO FLIGHT

First of all, for android machines, you need to set your language settings to “English(US)” in order to run the App correctly (working by default in chinese). If you don’t do this change, the app will crash almost immediatly. Goggle ‘X-hubsan app” and download it (here for example: https://apkpure.com/x-hubsan/com.csk.hbsdrone ). After the app installation, two possibilities for connexion:
i) direct WiFi connexion to the drone (password: “12345678”). With this solution, you can enjoy a connexion up to 150-200m with a good smarphone/tablet
ii) connexion through the range extender. Announced range is about 400m.

IN TERM OF SAFETY, IF THE MACHINE IS IN THE AIR IN DEFAULT FLIGHT MODE AND IF THE TRANSMISSION IS LOST, A RTH IS AUTOMATICALLY PLAYED.

Generally the latency introduced with the WiFi system for close range distances is already about 500ms, so at least 400ms more than the 5.8G solution of the H501S. So if you want to use more the H501 for FPV practice in tiny spaces, go for the “S” version.

It means versus distance, the latency will increase a bit while frame rate will drop too.

In the following video, you can find most elements of the app and some demo flight showing RTH, Orbit flight mode and the path planning feature. In general, I found the application well done, easy to understand and manipulate. The quadcopter position and heading is symbolized by and Arrow, while your current position by a circle point. No crashed was observed during usage. The virtual sticks are good enough to offer acceptable controls of the machine. If you can’t really fly like these and prefer a real controller, H501S radio should be compatible (will be test asap).

As you can see, in presence of strong Wind, no miracle with the stabilization…. super shaky despite the NDfilter. Anway, the 1080p footages are honest handling light correctly. Anyway, I observed that the frame rate is far to be super smooth despite the video are recorded at 30fps. Seems to have some frames lost in the recording (maybe depending of the microSD card quality). I really appreciated how easy is the waypoints definition for pathplanning. With the direct connexion, I was able to retrieve the FPV signal up to 150m in this demo.Paradoxally with the range extender, after a couple of minutes, I observed some short link disconnections even in close range (RTH procedure automatically lunched), but generally the signal was pretty strong for long distances. For follow-me application, it seems no heading ajustements are done to center the target. Only x-y displacements with laggy follow-me decisions. Typcally follow-me GPS only results. It’s clear this mode is more adapted to follow an object at constanst speed with the same angle. As for the H501S, the flight time durations are excellent, around 20min.

CONCLUSIONS

The Hubsan H501A is nothing else than a cheap and easy “pathplanner” machine carrying a good but not stabilized 1080p. So if you are looking for pure FPV applications and don’t care about pathplanning, the H501S will be more appropriated (thanks to lower latency in the 5.8G solution). In the other hands, if you main leitmotiv is too shoot videos on predefined trajectories, to perform selfy videos and don’t care about the contrability of the machine, the H501A is clearly for you. I regret the absence of a EIS feature for the camera and also the non-possibility to attach in range extender module any device larger than 5.5″.

PROS

+ Great App
+ Super easy path planning, orbit flight modes
+ Follow-me
+ Great flight time
+ Cheap AP plateform integrating advanced flight modes

CONS

– Not stabilized video (still not EIS)
– WiFi FPV transmission not efficient as the 5.8G version
– Sporatic disconnexion with range extender
– Can’t install devices larger than 5.5″ on the range extender module.

RCgroups thread: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2837201-Hubsan-H501A-WiFi-based-but-smart-(in-very-early-construction)

This quadcopter have been courtesy provided by Banggood in order to make a fair and not biased review. I would like to thank them for this attitude.
You can find it actually for 200USD at http://www.banggood.com/Hubsan-X4-AIR-H501A-WIFI-FPV-Brushless-With-1080P-HD-Camera-GPS-Waypoint-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-p-1115483.html

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